Entering the "strange and bizarre" world of the other

Connections between therapeutic empathy and speculative fiction. I've recently completed a short counselling course, mostly because I wanted to improve my listening skills, but also because I'm fascinated by what's going on under the bonnet of the therapeutic relationship. One of the 'modalities' which most interested me was the person-centred

Sarah I Jackson

#PersonCentred care refers to health care that is respectful of and responsive to personal experiences, preferences, needs, goals and values of service users.

Read our discussion piece on how we measure and evaluate such care and the potential place for #PatientReported outcomes in it:
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/health-services/articles/10.3389/frhs.2025.1578037/full

#PatientCentered #HRQL

Frontiers | Time is now to consider how we evaluate person-centred care—the role of patient-reported outcomes

Person-centred care refers to health care that is respectful of and responsive to personal experiences, preferences, needs, goals and values of service users...

Frontiers

Also, I had an epiphany. Therapy has inherent value even in shitty situations. At the very least, counselling can* grant you an example template of a (one-sided) healthy relationship.
It's unfair to have to wait or pay for it.
Regardless of what factors facilitate that experience, still, knowing what that COULD look like is constructive.

* [ I say "can" because some individuals should not be in mental health professions, others could be if they have better working conditions, and yet more can always have an off day -- or you two just might not mesh as people. It happens. ]

e.g. my therapist can't make my doctor stop being a shit, but knowing they believe me when I say it stresses me out is indispensable.
You need a handler for the spy-craft of existing while mistreated.
Someone must remind you that imagination for restructuring society is boundless.

We CAN meet everyone's needs if and only if we first consider it possible.

#SolarPunk #SolarPunkSaturday #therapy #counselling #CBT #psychodynamic #humanistic #PersonCentred #psychotherapy #MentalHealth #MentalIllness #distress #depression #situational #disability

Colleagues investigate how to counteract inequalities in harms caused by alcohol in the most deprived areas in #Scotland

Full project report
https://shaap.org.uk/downloads/reports/405-alcohol-management-deep-end-2022.html

Blog
https://vhscotland.org.uk/andreas-blog-supporting-people-from-disadvantaged-backgrounds-with-their-alcohol-problems/

The most recent paper stresses that
"...participants felt that the mainstream specialist alcohol services, the ADRS, did not provide the level of #PersonCentred care necessary to engage and support the patient group..."
https://bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-025-02755-8

#Nursing #PrimaryCare #AssertiveOutreach #Saidheans #Alba

Alcohol management in Deep End practices

Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP)

SHAAP

Person-centred and people-centred have started to appear in the vernacular of politicians this last week or two and are being used to mean many different things.

In this video, Rabharta's Mayor of Limerick candidate Dr Laura Keyes explains what she means when she says she brings a person-centred approach.

#WorkersAndCarers #PersonCentred #LimerickMayor #IrishPolitics #Ireland #Limerick

Supported decision making: Facilitating the self‐determination of persons living with #Alzheimer's and related diseases

#PersonCentred #Goals #Care #Dementia #Getiatrics
https://agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jgs.18596?af=R

This week I attended a conference for Counselling Trainers. I deliver CPCAB courses at a centre in Nottingham & it’s a wonderful role. At the conference I delivered a workshop on Using Natural Materials to facilitate personal discovery and growth. Thanking participants for permission to share images. #FE #counselling #training #personcentred #workshop #conference

A little glimpse of some of the work I am involved in!

#counselling #personcentred #professional https://www.pce-europe.org/current-board

Current Board | PCE Europe

Person-centred and experiential psychotherapy and counselling organisations in Europe

1) Many organisations seek to help people. They may use words like #strengthsbased or #personcentred or #community. If the people who do the work are managed in a hierarchical system with baked in dominance, decisions removed from people who do the work then they will fail

2) I am influenced by the notion of preconfiguration, that the 'means become the end' and this applies in so many situations.

Orgs often tell workers what to do, don't involve them in decisions and don't grant them authority.

Then tell them to work differently with people.

3) So what I think happens is that for the worker there is a disconnect. The values they are asked to use when working with people and communities are different from the values that keep them safe in a job.

4) It's grim irony that we ask workers in health, social care, community to listen and learn and support- to be facilitators and enablers, but they don't have that freedom back at the desk

5) Something then has to give, they have to 'put on a different coat' depending on who they are working with. That leads to inauthenticity (and yes, it is seen through!)

6) It also means the worker can't really work in the way you ask them to, because the hierarchical, management by dominance culture has system conditions that create tensions between doing the right thing and doing what keeps you in a job

7) Last one - so if you don't want people to make decisions on behalf of the people you support, don't do it to the staff. If you want to enable choice and increase freedom and autonomy, start with your people first

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I'm a person-centered #counsellor that works in private practice.

My expertise is providing safe environments, understanding and identifying emotions, and working at relational depth. I work with many clients who have autism and ADHD as well as trans people.

I can only work with people in the UK and Europe for legal reasons.
https://explorecounsellingsouthampton.co.uk/about/

#ExploreCounsellingSouthampton #Counselling #PersonCentred #RelationalDepth #ADHD #Autism #TransUK

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About

Peter Coffey, MChem (Hons), MRes, – Counsellor I am a person-centred counsellor working in Southampton. Over the past years, I’ve worked with a number of charities including Chrysalis (Gender…

Explore Counselling